


Speak

by GealachGirl



Series: The Trouble With Soulmates [5]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU, also lots of eye contact, background Kitty/Harry, background Toye/Luz, background Winnix, first words your soulmate says, lots of smiling in this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-15 02:40:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7202972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GealachGirl/pseuds/GealachGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carwood Lipton is having trouble talking to his soulmate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Speak

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta for the reassurance.

Carwood Lipton thought he knew who his soulmate was.

He couldn’t be totally sure, but whenever he saw the other man in the lobby of their apartment building and they made eye contact, he felt like something in the air around them was charged with electricity. Usually the eye contact was followed by a smile from across the room or a nod of acknowledgment and Carwood couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day.

He’d felt really lucky when he’d found the apartment building a year ago. He’d been desperate for a place to live and, even though he loved him, he hadn’t wanted to live with Luz.

It had gotten even better when his potential soulmate was the first person Carwood had “met” the day he moved in. The man had held the door open while Carwood struggled under the second half of a couch that Luz was “helping” him with.

Before Carwood could acknowledge the help, Luz had started firing off his thanks and all Carwood could do was look back at the helper to convey his gratitude. The man was already looking at him steadily with still brown eyes, and it had thrown Carwood off to the point where he could only smile back.

Carwood later learned the man’s name was Ronald Speirs and that became their relationship.

He’d always believed in the soulmate bond and he’d always believed that he would find his soulmate eventually—he’d looked forward to it—but he hadn’t expected to find his soulmate like this or for their interactions to be so stunted.

If Speirs even was his soulmate.

There was always the possibility that Speirs was just an extremely attractive man who’d caught Carwood’s eye. That wasn’t illegal anymore, not being with your soulmate, but Carwood didn’t want that. He wanted his soulmate.

That was why he thought he’d found him finally. No one had ever caught his eye or made him feel the way Ron Speirs did.

There was only one way to find out for sure and to get the ball rolling and that’s where Carwood was stumbling.

“For Christ’s sake, Lip, you’re the only person I know who has a damn crush on his soulmate without actually being with them,” Harry complained.

“That’s not true,” Dick interrupted, coming into the room with a grin on his face. From where he was slumped on the couch, Nix groaned. Dick settled beside him and patted his knee in a way that was both tender and amused.

Harry shot them a look. “You’re different. You at least talked to each other.”

They were hanging out at Dick’s, the four of them, the way they often did. Carwood lived down the hall from Dick—and most recently Nix—and Harry lived on another floor. Dick had been the second person Carwood had met the day he’d moved in, and the first one he’d talked to.

He’d fallen in with him and Harry soon after and Nix was the latest addition, though it felt like he’d been around forever. They got together at least once a week to sit around and eat dinner and talk.

“I can’t talk to him. Whenever he sees me he nods at me or maybe smiles and then he disappears,” Carwood replied, “I never have the _time_ to talk to him.”

Shortly after realizing how he felt about Speirs, Carwood had decided that the only reasonable next course of action was to say something. But the next time he’d seen Speirs was when he’d held the front door open as Speirs dashed in and Carwood was leaving. They’d both been in too much of a hurry and the next time Carwood had approached him, the other man had seen him coming and had nodded at him before leaving the building again. That was how it always happened—either Speirs left, or there was something else that kept them from talking.

“I don’t know, maybe he’s not my soulmate and he doesn’t like me or something,” Carwood finished, peeling at the label on his beer bottle.

“Aw, who the hell wouldn’t like you, Lip?” Nix asked. “Besides, he doesn’t have any reason not to like you, the only thing you do is smile at him or hold doors open.”

This was an old conversation and they were running the same circles they always did. They were just doing it faster now because they had Nix.

Dick chimed in then as he always did. His tone was considering, “Maybe he isn’t your soulmate then. Does that change how you feel?”

Carwood sighed. “Not about him, no.”

“So maybe you just need to get him to a point where he can’t go anywhere so you can say something to find out for sure,” Dick said reasonably.

That would be the next thing to do, but Carwood didn’t know how to make it happen.

“Yes Lip, trap the man so he can’t get away and he has to talk to you,” Harry said, rolling his eyes.

Dick shook his head, but it was Nix who stepped up and defended the idea. “That would fix the problem. Or maybe you could just yell to him from across the lobby the next time you see him. You’d say his words, and he’d maybe have to say yours. Or you would realize he’s not your soulmate and not ever have to see him again because he’ll be avoiding you.”

“How romantic,” Carwood muttered.

“You know, he’s not that bad when you _do_ talk to him. I’ve run into him a few times and he’s intense with the no blinking thing, but he’s interesting to talk to,” Harry added.

“Same here. I’ve had at least two conversations with the guy. He’s smart,” Nix said.

Dick, who actually knew Speirs, shook his head at Nix and Harry.

“Yeah, yeah, keep rubbing it in,” Carwood replied. He glanced at the time and stood up. “Alright, I have to work tomorrow. I assume we’ll pick up this conversation the next time we’re all together.”

“Don’t worry, Lip, we’ll figure your love life out eventually,” Harry promised. He was joking, but his words were sincere.

Carwood shook his head at his friends and left, but he felt touched regardless of the terrible advice that always ended up coming.

************

While in the bathroom getting ready for bed, Carwood couldn’t help looking at his words. They trailed along his collarbone in a way that the question mark on the end was almost always visible from under the collars of his shirts. _Are you joking?_

He rubbed his thumb against the letters absently and imagined hearing them. Sometimes Carwood looked at the words and could only imagine them being said in disdain or horror. He couldn’t even decide if his words were the first part of the pair or if they were Speirs’ response to whatever Carwood said.

Most of the time, it was easy to tell.

And most of the time, Dick told him that he needed to stop worrying. He’d shown Carwood his words after he and Nix got together— _You’re going to regret the day you set foot on the property, Dick. Mark my words._ —and explained that he’d always been a little concerned about meeting his soulmate and afraid of how it would happen with words like those. Then he’d told Carwood how he did meet Nix and why he’d said those words.

“Context changes everything, Carwood,” Dick had said. “I wouldn’t worry about the words themselves, just try to get Speirs to say them.”

Even though Dick had suggested that Speirs might not be Carwood’s soulmate, he was also the strongest believer after Carwood.

“It makes sense, doesn’t it? You said you’ve never been like this about anyone before him,” he always said when Carwood brought it up. Dick was his favorite person to talk to about the soulmate thing, but Nix was surprisingly insightful, too.

“Maybe he’s having the same problem you are,” he’d theorized a few nights ago. “And maybe his friends are also telling him to just suck it up and talk to you. Who knows what the hell either of you are waiting for, but I’m not one to judge.”

Both of them were useful, too, because they’d so recently been bonded. “It feels like everything and nothing changes,” Nix had told him, “if that makes any sense. I met Dick a month ago, but I feel like we’ve been together forever. It really is like finding the other part of yourself.”

Harry was encouraging. He and his soulmate, Kitty Grogan, pretty much had been together forever and for all of his joking he could never shut up about her. He reminded Carwood all the time that the bond was worth it.

With all of them in his corner, Carwood couldn’t help but want it and believe it could happen eventually.

*************

Speirs was getting his mail the next morning when Carwood walked through the lobby. This was typical and Carwood felt the familiar butterflies swoop through his stomach when he caught sight of the other man.

His hair was falling over his face as it was bent over his stack of mail and Carwood paused. It occurred to him distantly that he could say something now, but his vocabulary was suddenly empty. The electricity was back in the air and Carwood felt the potential, sure that he could come up with something.

As he stepped into the lobby, Speirs looked up. He caught sight of Carwood and did what he normally did; which was to close the door to his mailbox and turn on his foot, nodding at Carwood and offering a small smile when they made brief eye contact as he walked past. Carwood thought he felt his skin tingle as Speirs’ arm brushed his.

Nix’s idea of shouting after him crossed Carwood’s mind again and right now the idea seemed like it had some merit. But the door to the stairs had already closed.

Carwood looked at it for a moment before he sighed and turned back toward the front. He had a commute to make.

**********

“And then Toye nailed the guy in the jaw,” Luz said with an excited gleam in his eyes. “I mean, I kind of wish he didn’t get into fights whenever we went out, but it’s pretty great when he does.”

Carwood glanced over in amusement. “You realize that he mostly does it for you, right?”

Luz sighed happily and put his chin in his hand. “Yeah. That’s part of the reason why it’s great.” He perked up then. “Speaking of soulmates…” He nodded his head to the side and Carwood followed the gesture to see Ron Speirs walking toward the front desk.

The secretaries looked apprehensive and some of the other people who’d been standing around almost fell over themselves trying to get out of his way.

It wasn’t totally surprising to see him. Speirs worked for a sister company and he’d been known to show up from time to time. Carwood hadn’t ever seen him here in this department, but he’d heard stories about him visiting others.

They weren’t altogether pleasant and everyone he knew was afraid of the man. Carwood had heard all of them, but he couldn’t share the fear. Not when he knew what Speirs looked like when he smiled.

“So,” Luz said conversationally, “are you going to talk to him finally?” But Carwood wasn’t paying attention to him and Luz seemed to know that.

Speirs had reached the desk then and was talking to the secretaries, but as he spoke and they turned around to do whatever he’d asked, he glanced over toward Carwood and Luz. But really it was Carwood. They held eye contact and a hint of a smile hovered around Speirs’ lips. Carwood’s heart melted a little at the sight and he knew that a sappy smile appeared on his own face.

“Right, there’s no way he’s not your soulmate,” Luz said. He was leaning over the desk to get a look at Carwood’s face and there was a delighted smile on his. “Now all you have to do is talk to him.”

“Are you going to suggest that I yell at him from across the room? Because I already got that advice from Lewis Nixon.” Carwood was still looking at Speirs and the electric sensation was growing the longer their eyes stayed locked.

“See, I like Nixon. He’s got good ideas.” Carwood didn’t say anything in response.

One of the secretaries approached Speirs slowly and he looked terrified to interrupt the staring. Carwood knew this because Luz was narrating with a high degree of amusement.

Eventually, the guy tapped Speirs on the shoulder—“Oh my God, he looks like he’s going to throw up or die on the spot. Lip, your soulmate’s terrifying.”—and their eye contact broke when Speirs turned his head sharply to look at the other guy. The secretary did indeed look like he was going to have a heart attack, but he spoke anyway and Speirs nodded at him. He led Speirs away, down another hall and toward a conference room, but before he left the room, Speirs looked back at Carwood. Carwood was looking back.

When the door closed behind them, Luz let out a laugh that he must have been holding.

“Be careful with yourself with that one, Lip. I don’t believe those stories that they tell about him, but you have to admit that he’s kind of scary.”

The front door opened again and Joe Toye strutted in. “That’s good coming from you, Luz, with your soulmate who gets into fights whenever you go out.” Toye caught sight of them and Carwood waved. Luz turned toward where Carwood was looking and his face lit up as Toye came closer.

Watching them automatically lean toward each other over the desk, Carwood thought of the way Nix and Dick were together and the way Harry never stopped talking about Kitty. The soulmate bond was a terrifying and thrilling thing and Carwood wanted to experience it for himself, that perfect understanding and connection and synergy. 

He was done waiting. He wanted to know for sure and he was going to find a way to talk to Ron Speirs.

******************

It turned out that he didn’t have to look very hard. After work that same day, Carwood was standing in the elevator when he saw Speirs come in with his arms full of boxes and papers. The doors started to jerk closed and without thinking, Carwood stepped forward and stuck an arm out to keep the doors open.

They made eye contact instantly and Speirs hesitated for a moment before he picked up his pace and slid into the elevator. They’d never been alone in this close of a space before and the air around them immediately felt charged. Carwood abruptly remembered what Dick had said about finding a space where Speirs couldn’t disappear.

There was a ding to tell them that they’d reached and passed the second floor and Carwood knew that his time was running out before they got to the fifth and Speirs would be gone again. He noticed that the other man was avoiding looking at him and before Carwood could think about it, he spoke.

“Do you not like me or something?” The second it was out of his mouth, he was horrified. Carwood had thought about talking to Speirs for almost a year. He’d had a plan in his head.

His horror grew when Speirs snapped around to stare at him with (really pretty) wide brown eyes. His eyebrows were in a flat line, drawn slightly together into a shocked frown, and he didn’t blink. Carwood noticed that the things in Speirs’ arms seemed to be slipping a little as the silence stretched on and he felt his stomach sink. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything.

Then, quietly, Speirs replied, “Are you joking?” There was a mixture of emotions in his tone, but chief among them was disbelief. Carwood stared back, heart pounding in his chest.

He was right. Speirs was his soulmate. Distantly he was aware that the elevator doors were hanging open and that they’d arrived at the fifth floor, but Speirs didn’t move toward them. Instead, they kept staring at each other.

The doors slid closed eventually and Carwood tried to think past the rushing in his ears to no avail. He felt a little better when Speirs couldn’t say anything either. They stood in their shocked silence and as Carwood looked back at his soulmate, he noticed that Speirs was taking him in, running his eyes over Carwood’s face and pausing at the sight of the question mark just above his collar. He didn’t know what Speirs was looking for, but he tried to convey it with a small smile.

Out of the corner of his eye, Carwood saw someone stop outside of the open-again elevator doors, but he didn’t want to take his eyes off of Speirs now that he had him still and right there.

“Oh for God’s sake, you two. Come on.” There was a smile in Nix’s voice though, as he grabbed Carwood and Speirs by the sleeves and dragged them out of the elevator. “We only have one of those and other people need to use it.”

Finally Speirs broke eye contact and looked back at Nix. He was frowning at first, but then he seemed to realize who he was looking at.

Nix looked amused, though he was trying to hide it. “Come on Lip, and bring your soulmate. Dick’s going to want to know about this immediately and then you’re going to have dinner with us. We’re having a party,” he said, turning around like they were going to follow him. “Should probably call Harry and Kitty too,” he added as an afterthought.

Speirs turned to look at Carwood again and he smiled back. “It’ll be pointless to try to ignore him,” he said. Now that they were out of the elevator, it felt like that electric atmosphere diffused to fit the larger space they were in. It wasn’t pressing on his ears anymore and Carwood felt the words rush back to him along with excitement.

Now that he’d done it once, he wanted to keep talking to Speirs.

Something in Speirs’ expression softened and the line that his eyebrows made broke as his frown eased. “If you say so,” he replied, looking at Carwood with complete confidence.

“And he’s right about Dick. They’re soulmates and Nix is even pushier than Dick when he cares about something. He’d probably drag us from our apartments to get us back to his and Dick’s.”

“Sounds like it’ll be much easier to go now, then.”

“Definitely.”

Speirs offered him a small smile and Carwood took his hand, enjoying how it set off a spark against his skin and led Speirs toward the apartment Nix had disappeared into.

Carwood felt like his chest was expanding and he suspected that the smile on his face looked a lot like the one Luz got whenever he looked at Toye.

***************

Dick’s eyes lit up as soon as he walked through the door and caught sight of Speirs and Carwood sitting on the couch. Nix came into room and they made eye contact that contained a whole conversation while Carwood waited with his hand still resting in Speirs’.

“Congratulations you two,” Dick had said finally, eyes bright.

Before he could say anything else, Harry came in with Kitty on his heels. “Who said something first?” he demanded as soon as both feet were over the threshold. “I’m assuming that you’ve finally talked to each other and Nix isn’t just trapping you together until you do.”

Speirs frowned and looked at Carwood for explanation, but Carwood just sighed. “Yes we talked to each other.”

“I found them staring at each other in the elevator,” Nix supplied brightly.

“Oh, this is going to be painful,” Carwood muttered, but he couldn’t help smiling because he still had his soulmate beside him and the fact that they were joking meant that his friends really did care.

**********

Carwood’s friends eased up when they started dinner. Harry, Nix, and Kitty kept conversation going and Dick chimed in with questions whenever there was a lull. Speirs was stiff and tense at the beginning, but as the night wore on he began to fit into their group as seamlessly as Nix had. He was quietly smart and attentive to everyone at the table and he got along with the group as if there had been a spot that had been just waiting for him to come in.

Under the table, Ron had his knee pressed against Carwood’s and his hand resting low on Carwood’s thigh. It was comforting and steadying, even though Carwood didn’t need either of those things. It made him think that Ron was doing it for himself because he felt the same thing and Carwood smiled at the thought.

The party wound down when Dick mentioned that it was late and that he and Nix had to work in the morning. When he did it he was voicing Carwood’s thoughts and he was met with a small chorus of grudging agreement.

After cleanup and another round of congratulations—and Dick making eye contact with him, smiling softly and looking proud—Carwood found himself in the hallway with Ron; alone again for the first time in hours.

“I’ll walk you back to your place,” he suggested. All he really wanted to do was keep talking, but Ron had fallen quiet and Carwood could accept that maybe Ron was one of those people who wasn’t as excited about the soulmate bond. And they did have work in the morning, so maybe it was just time for the day to end.

“Why would you go down to the fifth floor just to come back up here?” He had a point. “I’ll walk you to yours, though,” he added softly. There was something cautious and hesitant in his eyes, and Carwood made sure to nod enthusiastically.

“I’m just down the hall,” he admitted. “719.”

“Easy to find then.” Carwood smiled and they started walking.

They had to pass the elevator again and, to Carwood’s surprise, Ron smirked. “I like your friends,” he said.

“They’re pretty great. Luz and Toye don’t live here, but I think you’ve met Luz before.”

Ron nodded. “Sometimes he comes over to our building to deliver things. He’s competent. And he likes you a lot.”

“What makes you say that?” They were in front of Carwood’s door now and he knew that they both noticed.

“The way he talks about you. Your other friends like you a lot, too.”

“Well they’re my friends.”

“It’s more than that.” Carwood laughed a little and turned to mess with the lock. “You’re a likeable person, Carwood.”

He stopped at that, hand still on the doorknob, and looked back at Ron in confusion. Ron was looking back intently, like that first day they’d met.

“Do you want to come in?” he asked quietly, still a little confused. Carwood pushed the door open, revealing an apartment that looked a lot like Nix and Dick’s. It was dark but for the light from the street outside.

Ron smiled and it reached his eyes, making them spark. He nodded.

“My words are on my back,” he said conversationally as he stepped inside, “at the top of my spine. ‘Do you not like me or something?’” Carwood still wasn’t sure what was happening, but he let Ron talk because it seemed to be going somewhere.

“I’ve always wondered what I could possibly do to make my soulmate think I don’t like them. Or even if it was something I did,” he fell quiet again and looked at Carwood before he continued. “You’re nice to me. The day you moved in, I noticed that something around me changed when you showed up. Whenever you were around, really. And the next time I saw you, you smiled at me like we were already good friends. And you do that all the time. You’re not afraid of me, even though you’ve probably heard all of those stories from people.”

He came closer and took one of Carwood’s hands. Carwood curled his fingers around Ron’s and gripped back. “People aren’t nice to me. They avoid looking at me or being around me, but you’re the exact opposite. It was hard to comprehend and it made me nervous, so I avoided you,” he had a wry smile on his face.

Then he looked at Carwood again and the hesitant, intense look in his eyes was disarming. “Can I kiss you?”

Carwood nodded.

It was soft at first, careful, but Carwood leaned into it and he felt Ron relax against him. Ron didn’t let go of his hand as his other cupped Carwood’s jaw and they moved closer together. Carwood smiled at the rush of electricity and the way he and Ron seemed to fit together. Relief broke open in his chest and he hadn’t realized until then that he’d still been worried about the soulmate bond.

“I like you a lot, too, Carwood,” Ron told him when the kiss ended. There was a shine in his eyes and an open, glowing smile on his face.

“I always thought you were my soulmate,” Carwood replied. “From the moment I met you and saw you looking back at me. I’m glad I finally said something.” He was starting to feel what Nix and Harry had described, like he’d never not had Ron standing in front of him like this.

“Sorry for running away.”

Carwood thought about it for a moment and shook his head. “Well, we have an interesting story to tell.” And it was worth it all in the end anyway. To have Ron here and looking at him in this open, hopeful way was more than Carwood could have hoped for.

All of his friends said the soulmate bond was a counterbalance. Whoever they were and whatever they did, your soulmate was everything you needed from another person. They filled in a space and understood you perfectly and they fit you because they were your perfect match. He paused and looked toward his kitchen. “Do you want to stay for coffee? Or to just talk?”

Ron glowed. “I’d like that a lot.”

Carwood smiled back and led Ron to the kitchen, where they had the first in what became a long line of hours-long conversations that lasted until they fell asleep or the sun came up, whichever came first.


End file.
